| 1 | Therefore, since these [great] promises are ours, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that contaminates
and
defiles body and spirit, and bring [our] consecration to completeness in the [reverential] fear of God. |
| 2 | Do open your hearts to us again [enlarge them to take us in]. We have wronged no one, we have betrayed
or
corrupted no one, we have cheated
or
taken advantage of no one. |
| 3 | I do not say this to reproach
or
condemn [you], for I have said before that you are [nested] in our hearts, [and you will remain there] together [with us], whether we die or live. |
| 4 | I have great boldness
and
free
and
fearless confidence
and
cheerful courage toward you; my pride in you is great. I am filled [brimful] with the comfort [of it]; with all our tribulation
and
in spite of it, [I am filled with comfort] I am overflowing with joy. |
| 5 | For even when we arrived in Macedonia, our bodies had no ease
or
rest, but we were oppressed in every way
and
afflicted at every turn—fighting
and
contentions without, dread
and
fears within [us]. |
| 6 | But God, Who comforts
and
encourages
and
refreshes
and
cheers the depressed
and
the sinking, comforted
and
encouraged
and
refreshed
and
cheered us by the arrival of Titus. |
| 7 | [Yes] and not only by his coming but also by [his account of] the comfort with which he was encouraged
and
refreshed
and
cheered as to you, while he told us of your yearning affection, of how sorry you were [for me] and how eagerly you took my part, so that I rejoiced still more. |
| 8 | For even though I did grieve you with my letter, I do not regret [it now], though I did regret it; for I see that that letter did pain you, though only for a little while; |
| 9 | Yet I am glad now, not because you were pained, but because you were pained into repentance [and so turned back to God]; for you felt a grief such as God meant you to feel, so that in nothing you might suffer loss through us
or
harm for what we did. |
| 10 | For godly grief
and
the pain God is permitted to direct, produce a repentance that leads
and
contributes to salvation
and
deliverance from evil, and it never brings regret; but worldly grief (the hopeless sorrow that is characteristic of the pagan world) is deadly [breeding and ending in death]. |
| 11 | For [you can look back now and] observe what this same godly sorrow has done for you
and
has produced in you: what eagerness
and
earnest care to explain
and
clear yourselves [of all
[a]complicity in the condoning of incest], what indignation [at the sin], what alarm, what yearning, what zeal [to do justice to all concerned], what readiness to mete out punishment [
[b]to the offender]! At every point you have proved yourselves cleared
and
guiltless in the matter. |
| 12 | So although I did write to you [as I did], it was not for the sake
and
because of the one who did [the] wrong, nor on account of the one who suffered [the] wrong, but in order that you might realize before God [that your readiness to accept our authority revealed] how zealously you do care for us. |
| 13 | Therefore we are relieved
and
comforted
and
encouraged [at the result]. And in addition to our own [personal] consolation, we were especially delighted at the joy of Titus, because you have all set his mind at rest, soothing
and
refreshing his spirit. |
| 14 | For if I had boasted to him at all concerning you, I was not disappointed
or
put to shame, but just as everything we ever said to you was true, so our boasting [about you] to Titus has proved true also. |
| 15 | And his heart goes out to you more abundantly than ever as he recalls the submission [to his guidance] that all of you had, and the reverence
and
anxiety [to meet all requirements] with which you accepted
and
welcomed him. |
| 16 | I am very happy because I now am of good courage
and
have perfect confidence in you in all things. |
Cross references:
-
2 Corinthians 7:11 : I Cor. 5.
|